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I had a conversation recently with a highly successful
professional who, by traditional measures, has proven he knows
what it takes to lead an enterprise to victory. But it wasn’t
long before I was taken aback by something he said. As we were
talking about the nature of my coaching clients, he interjected
that he believes the biggest problem with large corporations is
middle management. He went on to explain that middle managers are
to blame for most of the failures within companies because,
rather than making things happen for the organization, they act
as a roadblock between upper management and front-line employees.

What struck me was how shortsighted he was. Yes, middle managers
are responsible for motivating, inspiring and propelling
front-line employees toward success for the organization. But
that doesn’t mean that top management isn’t equally responsible
(or even more so) for all that. Middle management’s failures are
top management’s failures – just as folks in the C-suite can’t
wholly take credit for the good things that happen in a company.
It is symbiotic.

All executives must own their own piece of the puzzle and be
autonomous enough to succeed in the roles for which they were
hired. But it is important to remember the special responsibility
those at the top bear. If you are a company founder, you need to
also be a manager of people – of all levels of the organizational
chart – in addition to working on strategy. If you are an
aggressive middle manager who wants to move up, you have to
understand that every rung you step on as you move up brings not
only more authority, but more responsibility. I don’t care if
your corporate pyramid is right side up or upside down. If you
reside on the skinny point of the pyramid, then you are
responsible for leading, mentoring and coaching.

This is the heart of corporate leadership.
CEOs often forget the management part of leadership. They can be
forgiven for doing so. CEOs spend a lot of time managing the most
important customer relationships. They like to serve as chief
engineer of their companies. They live to sell their companies’
services and products. All of those passions got them the jobs
they have. But that isn’t true leadership. True leadership
showing others the way, mentoring, inspiring and coaching your
direct reports so they in turn become better leaders to mentor
and coach their direct reports. Along with all the other
responsibilities, the C-suite creates the culture, sets the tone
of firm-wide leadership and fosters employees as they rise up the
organizational chart.

Sometimes that means firing people. Other times it means moving
people around, to ensure the right worker is tasked with the
right role. And, despite how hands on you need to be, you have to
walk that delicate balance to avoid micromanaging.

But leadership is about creating and guiding an environment built
around success – for the newest hire all the way up to your own
COO. It is also not for everyone. You might find that, of all the
people in need of coaching, mentoring or a new job, you
may need to be the prime candidate.

So the next time you find yourself complaining (out loud or in
your head) about any of your people, ask yourself what you can do
better to show them the way and lead them to victory. While there
are always underperformers who we’re not able to help, if you are
complaining about a whole group or a big section of your team,
then chances are it’s not what they did to mess up your company.
It is what you didn’t do to lead them.